


a week to breathe

by technothecow



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Amnesia, Earth god!George, Future AU, Good Friend Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), How Do I Tag, Human!Dream, M/M, Magic, Mythology - Freeform, No Smut, No real names, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Out of Character, POV Third Person Limited, This fanfic has Techno's upload schedule sorry, dystopian au, no beta we die like men, old gods AU, sapnap and techno third wheel together
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:53:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26065303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/technothecow/pseuds/technothecow
Summary: Dream's coasting on a whole life of meh. He's torn between his bland life in a dying world and odd instincts that nobody else can relate to. The only way he can remedy this is spending time in a pitiful nature reserve, one of the only ones left in the sprawling, neverending metropolitan planet.George can't remember himself. And he doesn't know why everyone looks at him like he's about to grow another head or something. Sure he's different from them fundamentally, but it's not that strange, is it? Surely this happens often.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Somewhere in the distant future, when the Earth is on the brink of death and pollution forces humans to constantly fight for a clean breath of air, Human!Dream meets deity!George, who isn't quite well. And it's probably not getting better. Very loosely based off of "Minecraft, But The World Is Controlled By A Player"Update: probably abandoned, sorry.
Relationships: Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17





	a week to breathe

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, first posted fanfic! So I'm mostly writing this for writing practice, I'll be honest. Sorry if this first chapter sounds too exposition-y or takes itself too seriously. I'd love it if yall could give me constructive criticism. Or point out any grammar mistakes. I've got this planned out for about six or seven chapters, but I might not upload frequently because thanks schoolwork. Read bottom notes for me rambling about the creation of this fic and other random stuff. Obligatory "Dont ship real people without consent" warning. Kudos and comments are greatly appreciated :)

Whenever Dream woke up first thing in the morning, he always took a moment to ponder if he was really awake, or if he was just dreaming about waking up. The cold, gray ceiling and the bare, gray walls, and the thin, pale light through his windows were indistinguishable from his subconscious. Dream really only knew he was awake when he touched the cold plastic of his filtration mask. 

Dream sat up and carefully pulled the covers off, bracing himself for the usual morning chill. He had an ever-evolving conspiracy theory that filtration masks for sleeping were built to uncomfortable on purpose. Companies said they were made of softer plastics than the utilitarian standard breathing masks, but there was no way sleeping in anything that pokey could actually be seen as comfy in anything but marketing. 

Oh, well. No point in complaining. It's not like Dream ever had (or ever will have) one of those fancy apartments that automatically filtered the dangerous pollutants out of the air before they could reach his lungs. 

Dream yawned and stretched, pulling himself out of bed. At least tomorrow, Dream didn't have to drag himself to school. He got a whole week off from college. All he had to do was get through today. 

Dream very carefully switched between his sleep and main filtration mask. His own mask was nothing special; a round, plain white mask that covered his eyes, nose, and mouth. It was a little old, still bearing the smiley Dream had drawn on in highschool as a joke. But it did its job. Dream changed, grabbed his bag, and left. 

At least he could rest tomorrow.

***

Dream was out of his seat the moment the clock tower proclaimed it was 4 o'clock. The groupchat was informing him that there was a meeting by the statue directly after his last class, and he didn't want to miss it. It was a good thing the room was so close to the ground floor. Dream raced down seven flights of stairs and pushed through the heavy doors into the courtyard. 

The courtyard was a 50 by 50 feet space- a rarity in the city sprawl that now covered the earth nearly completely. In the center stood a bronze statue on a concrete pedestal. Dream knew from his sixth grade class on the ancient ones that it was probably meant to be Sky, the olden ruler. But his signature staff and bar of gold had taken a few too many rains; his face looked like a sad, blobby mess. 

Clearly it was a superior meeting place. 

Sapnap spotted him first and waved, his eyes catching a new sort of shine in them as Dream approached. 

For a second, Dream felt that something that he always did whenever he talked with Sapnap: that warmth, that intense pride that _you're here and you're talking with me._ That feeling that you get when an arm's thrown around your shoulders in jest. 

"Hey, dude." Sapnap accepted him with a slap on the back, which didn't quite work because Dream was wearing a backpack. The rest of the group acknowledged him: Skeppy and that impossible-to-read guy, Techno, briefly paused in their bickering to nod hello at him. Or, at least, Skeppy nodded at him. Techno did this sort of imperceptible head movement that Dream interpreted as a nod. 

"So, Tommy's school doesn't end until Monday, and he's got this big project over the weekend, he invited us over tomorrow and I was thinking of hosting a Make-fun-of-Tommy day.." Sapnap said.

"Dude, you know Tommy's just going to scam you into working on it for him, right?" Dream chuckled. "That's what happened last time, come on."

"So are you coming?"

Dream shifted, suddenly awkward. "Well, um..."

Sapnap groaned. 

"You're not going to that place _again_ , are you?"

Dream shrugged and didn't answer, which was enough of an answer for Ssapnap.

"Again? But you went last break! And the break before! I thought you were only going twice a year!"

Dream found himself looking at his feet. 

"Well, it's been, like, half a year since I last went, so..." 

"Dude!" Sapnap made a fake pouty face at him.

"Well, you could always come with me.." Dream joked. 

"Nah, that place makes me depressed as hell, sorry," Sapnap said, both of them knowing he was only half-joking this time. 

The laughter subsided for a moment, leaving a heavy silence in its place. 

"Well, if you need me, I'll be at Tommy's place, definitely not helping him with his homework," Sapnap said. "Oh, and Dream?"

"Yeah?"

"Have fun, okay?"

There was something that told Dream that Sap was being sincere. He dwelled on it as he turned and walked from the statue, heading home. It wasn't in Sap's voice, no, it was hidden in the way his eyes looked all soft. Maybe soft wasn't the right word. It was something forgiving, but bright at the same time. Like a... spiky pillow or something. Maybe Dream would tell Sapnap that, "Hey, your eyes look soft. But not quite soft." Or maybe Dream was getting up into his head too often. 

Rain was coming, so Dream ducked inside. There wasn't a whole lot to distract him from his thoughts as he walked the familiar path back home. Just the sound of the rain, the beat of his own footsteps on concrete, the dreary windows, the darkened sky, and the gray, gray city. 

**Author's Note:**

> Um so sorry if this got too climate-changey. The original idea was a short oneshot about earthgod!George and Human!Not a streamer!Dream based around that one video that I mentioned above, but then it kinda got out of hand when I tried to find some way to justify Dream wearing a mask and then it spiralled into a future/dystopian au. oops.  
> I originally wrote this in bits on pieces of paper and my notes app, and rereading Sapnap's dialogue that I wrote on a random bit of notepaper at 12AM makes me think about how much I probably overuse the word "dude" in my speech.  
> anyways here's an extra paragraph that i cut from this chapter:
> 
> Dream thought back to that class where the teacher said that when humans made the transition to permanent breathing masks, they struggled with understanding each other. Faces were just too important in conversation. Eleven-year-old Dream felt something click. Maybe that's why he felt like pluto every friend group. Maybe he just hadn't received the update that made him connect with others.


End file.
